KUALA LUMPUR – The fact that voters in Masjid Tanah received money after voting in the 15th general election is not direct evidence of inducement, according to the Federal Court’s judgement, which upheld the victory of Perikatan Nasional candidate Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin.
A three-member bench of the apex court said this in rejecting Barisan Nasional candidate Abdul Hakim Abdul Wahid’s appeal against the Melaka election court’s decision, which also dismissed his election petition to nullify Mas Ermieyati’s victory in the parliamentary seat.
The bench, which comprised justices Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan, and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, said in its broad grounds of judgement that when voters cast their ballots, they were “free from any promise of payment of monies by the respondent (Mas Ermieyati) or her agent and had no knowledge of monies being distributed at the house behind the restaurant”.
“(So), can it be said that the respondent’s or her agent’s subsequent act of making monetary payments to those voters influenced their decision to vote?
“Put another way, in the absence of any evidence of a promise of money or other consideration at any time, present or future, preceding the act of voting, can it be said that the voter was induced to vote by the respondent or its agent?
“We do not think so. This is because the Act itself requires the element of inducement to be made out. There can be no bribery under Section 10(a) (of the Election Offences Act 1954) without the element of inducement being established,” said the judgement.
The judges said there was no evidence of the voters being persuaded, influenced or induced to vote, or not to vote, or to vote in any particular manner.
“The voters were randomly told while at a restaurant, after having voted, to go to a house behind a restaurant where money was being handed out. They did so.”
The judgement also noted that Hakim, the appellant, had conceded that there was no direct evidence of inducement.
Nevertheless, the judges also made it clear that the court considers “any act of monies being given for votes or the like, as being abhorrent and something no court would condone in any event”.
“In conclusion, the election judge was not plainly wrong in his ultimate finding. Accordingly, the result that the election was not voided is correct,” the judgement said.
The judges dismissed Hakim’s appeal with no order to costs.
Mas Ermieyati won the Masjid Tanah seat with a majority of 4,411 votes in a four-cornered fight against Hakim, Gerakan Tanah Air – Pejuang’s Handrawirawan Abu Bakar, and Muda’s Mutalib Uthman.
Hakim filed the petition at Melaka’s election court in January last year, seeking to nullify Mas Ermieyati’s electoral victory.
However, he failed to obtain leave to pursue the case. He then appealed against the leave dismissal at the Federal Court, to which the apex court returned the case to Melaka’s election court for a full trial.
Melaka election court judge Datuk Abu Bakar Katar struck out the petition on October 27 the same year, after hearing testimonies from 28 witnesses during a 13-day trial. – February 28, 2024